8/21: Good Game, DAT.

I've been reading and being inspired by SDN breakdowns for the past two years and I'm finally glad to be done and add mine. I love everything SDN has given me and I'm eager to give back, so here it is:


PAT:--23 (96.2%)
QR:---30 (100%)
RC:---23 (96.1%)
Bio:---26 (99.8%)
GC:---24 (98.0%)
OC:---26 (99.2%)
TS:---25 (99.9%)
AA:---26 (100%)

Breakdown:
PAT: KBB Achiever, CDP.
Kaplan was a bit easy looking back on things, but I thought pattern folding and cube counting were close to the real thing. Achiever and CDP were good prep for timing, I didn't finish the first CDP or Achiever in time but managed to improve and finished the real thing with a few minutes left.

QR: KBB, Achiever, DAT Destroyer, Chad, KhanAcademy.
DID NOT SEE THIS COMING. I felt most confident with QR going into the DAT, but after seeing some of the questions on the exam, I didn't think I'd get them all. Kaplan and Achiever are good practice, but I thought DAT Destroyer (didn't buy MATH Destroyer) was really good on its own as far as getting a real feel for the type of questions present on the QR section. Kaplan's level of difficulty was just slightly easier than the real exam. Chad's videos were great as a refresher for a few concepts, but don't cover everything in QR. Finally, I used KhanAcademy a few days before the test to relearn a few concepts I'd seen on practice exams that weren't covered by any of the other resources, which definitely paid off on a couple questions.

RC: KBB, Achiever.
I never really liked the RC section and got a strange "what-did-I-just-eat" kind of feeling when I got to it on the real thing, which was oddly coincidental because one of the passages mentioned funky types of disease-causing foods. Anyways, i thought Achiever was the best practice for this because the question styles are similar, but the real DAT passages are definitely shorter, nicer, and more interesting than Achiever passages. I ran into a few tone questions, but nothing out of the blue.

Bio: KBB, Achiever, CliffsAP Biology, KhanAcademy, Campbell's Biology, Alan's Notes, DAT Destroyer, DATqVault.
I definitely studied biology way more than any other section and felt fairly good about it going into the test, but still had a couple of odd application questions that I wasn't familiar with. I'd say CliffsAP was the best resource and covered the majority of the questions on the exam. I used KhanAcademy and Campbell's Bio textbook to fill in some holes for topics not covered in Kaplan or Cliffs. I really liked Alan's Notes too, it hit on all the important concepts and was perfect for rereading the night before the exam. I went through Destroyer Bio twice and took notes on every question I missed, which was great for remembering the little details that like to show up on the real thing. Finally, I took the 10 Bio DATqVault tests, which are a fantastic resource and ended up teaching me a lot of things I hadn't seen in any other resource beforehand, especially the skeletal system section.

GC: KBB, Achiever, DAT Destroyer, Chad.
Chad is the best! I'm hoping to run into him on campus sometime this year just to thank him for how simple he makes chemistry. I went through his videos and quizzes once and reviewed the notes I took thrice. Achiever and Destroyer are both much harder than the real thing, I don't remember having to do a single calculation, all the answer choices had them included. Regardless, Destroyer is a great resource for GC, I did the GC section twice and reviewed any wrong answers the night before the exam.

OC: KBB, Achiever, DAT Destroyer, Chad.
Ochem has always been a pretty strong subject for me and I had a fantastic Ochem professor, so I didn't spend too much time with it. Chad was really great at covering concepts and reactions. Destroyer was my favorite resource for this section. It destroyed my confidence the first time around, but after doing it again, I really got a good feeling for things like stereospecificity and remembering every obscure little reaction out there. The Roadmaps in there are AMAZING and those alone are worth the entire book. I reviewed those a few times before the exam and went over all the questions I missed the night before (which ended up saving me on one of the ochem questions on the real thing).

Practice Test Scores (In order of when I took them, I started to feel tired out during a few practice tests because I often took them late, so X's mean I didn't do those sections):

Test:------------------PAT/QR/RC/BIO/GC/OC/TS/AA
KBB:------------------20----25--22--17----20-19--20---21
Kaplan Online:----22----27---21-18----19--20--19---21
ADA 2007:----------x-----25----x--16-----23--28--20---x
Achiever 1----------21---21----20-18-----19--20--19--20
Achiever 2----------20---21----20-19-----18--19--19--20
Achiever 3----------x-----x-------x-19-----19--19---19--x
ADA 2009----------23---20-----21-29-----25--30---29-25

CDP: 22, 21, 22 (Ended up not having the time to finish the last two)
DATqVault Bio: 19, 20, 20, 20, 20, 21, 22, 22, 22, 22

I'm about to go into my junior year so I won't be applying until next cycle, I'm just really glad to be done.